⚡️START HERE⚡️
Welcome to Secret Stuff
Welcome to Secret Stuff!
I’m truly glad you’re here.
This project started as an email newsletter tied to the mommy lifestyle blog I launched in 2010 called Hollywood Housewife1. I wanted a place for “secret posts” I couldn’t share on the public website.
Eventually blogging became social media, I got really comfortable on the microphone as part of three separate podcasts, and I published two books, but it is the SECRET POSTS that have been with me the longest. These essays are where I share stuff I don’t talk about anywhere else.
In early 2025 I moved the Secret Posts email newsletter to Substack and merged it with my membership community called Secret Stuff. So now the secrets are all in one place!
The Secret Posts remain free for those interested in my personal essays and book recommendations, and the Secret Stuff membership upgrade is here for those who want to go deeper with the Book Club, community Symposiums, and special programs like Stephen King Summer, The Artist’s Way, and Journal Parties.
Here’s what I want you to know:
⚡️ Substack can be confusing to navigate. I wrote a tutorial with screenshots that will help you get the most out of your subscription
⚡️ Our community Book Club and Symposium meetings are typically held on weeknights at 6pm PT / 9pm ET and occasionally on Sundays at 4pm PT / 7pm ET
⚡️ All community zoom meetings are recorded (unless I’ve explicitly said otherwise) and available as audio-only REPLAYS (basically we turn them into podcast episodes that you can listen to in your podcast app of choice - click here and scroll down a bit for a tutorial on how to listen to Secret Stuff content in your regular podcast app)
⚡️ I really like the Substack app as a creator and consumer. It’s very user friendly, pretty, and puts all your Substack subscriptions in one place. It also gives the easiest access to the members-only chat. However, DO NOT subscribe to or upgrade any Substack subscriptions on mobile, as there is an App Store surcharge.
⚡️ Bookmark the main Secret Stuff Substack page, whether you typically get posts in your email inbox or the app because all the information you’re usually looking for can be found easily on the main Secret Stuff page. The meeting schedule, the posted zoom links, etc all live on the main page in the latest posts, in the navigation bar, or in the section titled INFO near the bottom.
Secret Stuff Members are INCREDIBLE
I am grateful, honored, (and sometimes baffled) at how the most incredible people have found their way to Secret Stuff.
Secret Stuff members are from all over the globe and with a wide range of ages and life experiences. We are smart, curious, and open.
We have the most insightful, funny, thoughtful, and intelligent conversations every month and I always leave our zoom meetings better informed and with a fresh perspective about the book or topic we discuss.
What we’re getting out of the Secret Stuff experience is beyond any other group I’ve ever been a part of on in the internet. If you’re looking for Book Club meetings where people *actually* talk about the book and why it matters and resonates (or doesn’t), or you just want to spend a couple of evenings a month in great conversations instead of scrolling on the couch (again), Secret Stuff is for you.
And a little about me…
I grew up in small town Oklahoma, but I’ve lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years.
I discovered my favorite author Stephen King in the 4th grade, I’ve kept a journal since middle school, and I have an admittedly unhealthy addiction to Dr Pepper and chicken wings.
I moved to Hollywood to be a writer, but I got sidetracked working in reality television for 7 years before quitting in a relieved huff and starting a family instead. With that first baby in my lap, I started a blog and it changed my whole life. Writing on the internet has been my passion ever since (and that baby now drives a car).
In 2015, my childhood friend Meg Tietz asked me to be a cohost on her new podcast Sorta Awesome. The next year, Meg and I launched Smartest Person in the Room together, and in 2019 I created the 10 Things To Tell You podcast as a solo project, which I brought to a close in 2025.
Weirdly enough, learning to podcast well made me a better writer. From my podcasts, I published two books: Share Your Stuff. I’ll Go First (2021) and The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs (2023). Because as much as I love a mic, I believe my calling is on the page.
I am passionate about women telling their stories, even their secret ones. Not because I don’t value privacy and discretion, and not because I think we should haul all of our skeletons out of the closet, but because silence has made us sick. It has made us smaller versions of ourselves. Not sharing our stuff keeps us from being who we can become.
I am never advocating for anyone to share stuff they’re uncomfortable with, especially not on the internet and especially not to strangers. But I see too many examples all the time of women not sharing themselves at all, because they don’t want to add to the noise or they don’t think their voice matters. But it’s not noise and it does matter.
Hence, Secret Stuff. A place to talk about it.
I’m glad you’re here.
I blogged as Hollywood Housewife for over 6 years and it changed my life. Substack feels very similar to blogging days with the rise of voices and strong writing, yet the world and the internet is a different place now. On that note, I no longer (or never really did?) consider myself a housewife, but I do still live in Hollywood!